Microsoft SQL ServerCustomer Solution Case Study

Mitsui & Co. Deploys High-Availability and Disaster-Recovery Solution After Earthquake

OverviewCountry or Region: JapanIndustry: Manufacturing

Customer ProfileMitsui & Co., Ltd., is one of the largest general trading companies in Japan, with businesses activities spanning energy, machinery, chemicals, food, textile, logistics, finance, and more.

Business SituationAfter the devastating 2011 earthquake in Japan, Mitsui management realized that it needed a more robust disaster-recovery solution that could be implemented quickly and cost-effectively.

SolutionMitsui upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2012 to take advantage of SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn and gain uninterrupted operation of critical business systems.

Benefits Higher availability and faster system

restoration Less work for IT staff Cost-effective disaster-recovery

solution Greater business agility

“By using SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn, we can instantly switch operations to a secondary server in the event of an earthquake or other disaster, allowing us to continue business operations no matter what.”

Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, Assistant Director, IT Promotions Division, Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

As one of Japan's leading general trading companies, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., has multiple businesses all over the world. When a massive earthquake rocked the country in March 2011, Mitsui realized that it needed to come up with a more highly available infrastructure for running core business systems in the event of natural disasters. Mitsui upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2012 to take advantage of new high-availability features such as AlwaysOn as well as performance enhancements from features such as xVelocity. Mitsui anticipates dramatic availability improvements and faster switchovers to backup systems with less work for its IT staff. It has also gained a cost-effective disaster-recovery solution that doesn’t involve expensive duplication of its infrastructure. In addition, Mitsui is enjoying greater overall business agility from faster database queries.

SituationMitsui & Co., Ltd., is one of Japan’s leading sogo shosha, or trading companies, with business interest in iron and steel, mineral and metal resources, construction, automobile manufacturing, marine, aerospace, chemicals, energy, foods, retail, telecommunications, financial services, and other industries. The company is headquartered in Tokyo and employs approximately 5,800 people working from 151 offices in 65 countries.

Because it needs to respond to changes in so many markets in so many parts of the world, Mitsui wanted an information system that could accommodate business changes for the next 10 years. In 2009, Mitsui created an Information Strategies Committee tasked with researching technology trends and ensuring that Mitsui was taking advantage of technologies that would help it remain competitive.

As a result of this research, Mitsui renovated its existing core business system in 2010 and created a core application called MIRAI that was based on SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) 6.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software. MIRAI runs in a private cloud environment that Mitsui built using the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system with Hyper-V technology.

However, when the Tohoku Earthquake erupted off the coast with devastating ferocity in March 2011, Mitsui management realized with sobering clarity that a disaster could strike anywhere, anytime, and take down MIRAI and other business-critical applications. It needed to take greater precautions to ensure uninterrupted

business operations in the face of unexpected environmental disasters, political turmoil, or other causes.

Before the Tohoku Earthquake, the company mirrored MIRAI to a synchronous site and then sent data to a disaster- recovery site by using log shipping, copying log backups at regular intervals to secondary servers. The IT staff used these logs to get new servers running after a disaster. However, after the Tohoku Earthquake, it took too long to get the MIRAI servers running using log backups, so the IT staff placed an asynchronous secondary server in an overseas location. This made it possible to quickly switch over when a disaster occurred. However, because it could not mirror on-premises, regular maintenance work was limited to weekends.

Also, switching from the backup system to the main production system required a great deal of work. And because the IT staff was often unsure how long the emergency situation would continue, it was difficult for them to judge the timing of the backup switchover, which produced a great deal of stress. Additionally, in cases of disasters such as earthquakes, Mitsui never knew whether the system administrators in charge of executing the backup switchovers were victims.

“We realized that all kinds of things could interrupt our business, from earthquakes to a sudden halt in the electrical supply to a transit strike,” says Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, Assistant Director of the IT Promotions Division at Mitsui & Co. “Those of us in the IT Promotions Division began serious

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business continuity planning to improve the availability of critical systems."

Of course, Mitsui had to take into consideration more than just keeping the business operational at any cost. It had to build a high-availability infrastructure that could be built and administered for a reasonable cost and was easy enough to use that IT staffers could quickly switch key systems to backup locations.

SolutionMitsui had used Microsoft SQL Server since the early 1990s, beginning with Microsoft SQL Server 4.21. It had seen Microsoft pump a steady stream of improvements into the software and watched reliability and functionality improve with each new version. The development staff at Mitsui was very familiar with the software and had enormous confidence in it, so it was natural for Mitsui to evaluate Microsoft SQL Server 2012 when it became available.

A sister company, Mitsui Knowledge Industry Co., Ltd. (MKI), served as the IT partner during the company’s evaluation process. “The people at MKI had deep experience in SQL Server and were able to help us think through the best ways to incorporate the new SQL Server functionality into our environment,” says Mr. Kuroda.

Microsoft Japan also provided support during the Mitsui deployment of SQL Server 2012, working closely with SAP to ensure that MIRAI ran perfectly not only on SQL Server 2012 but also on SAP ECC. "We have enormous trust in Microsoft, which is important when it comes to working on mission-critical systems," Mr. Kuroda says.

As a part of the SQL Server 2012 Early Adopter Program, Mitsui focused its testing on two SQL Server 2012 features. The first was SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn, an enhancement of database mirroring that supports as many as four secondary databases, including two synchronous secondaries. The company set up synchronous/asynchronous secondary databases that, according to Mr. Kuroda, "We wanted so badly that we could taste them." It also created an AlwaysOn availability group, a logical collection of databases that automatically fail over as one unit.

Mitsui also evaluated the xVelocity memory-optimized columnstore index feature, which greatly speeds query performance, especially star-join queries, by storing index data in columns rather than rows. Previously, if database administrators wanted to perform a batch process on a column of a basic database, they had to run a secondary processing overnight and then split the data up. But with xVelocity, administrators can use the original database and thus work more efficiently.

"Until now, nothing could be done about the time necessary to split data because it was done in batches, but with xVelocity, we can make progress on presenting new utilization methods,” says Mr. Masahiro Nakahara, Department Manager of the Information Communications Infrastructure Department, IT Promotions Division, Mitsui & Co.

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“It is my expectation that the innovations we’ve introduced with SQL Server 2012 will lead to an improvement in agility for the entire company.”

Mr. Masahiro Nakahara, Department Manager, Information Communications

Infrastructure Department, IT Promotions Division, Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

BenefitsBy upgrading to SQL Server 2012, Mitsui & Co. expects to see improvements in the availability of mission-critical applications and to reduce the work of its IT staff in delivering high availability. Mitsui was also able to create its new disaster-recovery solution cost effectively. By using SQL Server 2012 to improve query speeds, Mitsui has sped decision making throughout the company and thus increased overall business agility.

Higher Availability and Faster System RestorationMitsui expects to improve availability by taking advantage using AlwaysOn. The company can mirror up to four secondary servers with AlwaysOn and use both synchronous and asynchronous environments when doing so. The IT staff will be able to perform regular data-center maintenance with key applications running and performing synchronous mirroring. The company can also asynchronously use the secondary server in its overseas disaster-recovery site, making a speedy backup switchover possible.

"By using AlwaysOn, we can instantly switch operations to a secondary server in the event of an earthquake or other disaster, so we can continue business operations no matter what," Mr. Kuroda says. “We are already operating a long-distance backup system between Tokyo and Hong Kong using SQL Server 2008. With AlwaysOn, we will be able to switch to the Hong Kong site in about an hour. In the future, we will have high availability both regularly and in emergencies using SQL Server 2012, which will help us reduce operating costs even further."

Less Work for IT StaffMitsui has also reduced the work for its IT staff by using AlwaysOn. “Our previous log-shipping method of switching over systems required a great deal of effort and time,” says Mr. Nakahara. “By using AlwaysOn, we can be assured that we are prepared to automatically execute a system switchover and do it with far less work.”

IT staff efficiency is important because its workload is growing as the company expands throughout the world and adds new technologies that it must support. “The sun never sets on our business, so there is literally no time for downtime and an ever-increasing amount of work for our staff, which is not growing,” Mr. Nakahara says. “By using AlwaysOn, we will be able to keep the business going with far less effort from our busy IT staff.”

Cost-Effective Disaster-Recovery SolutionWith SQL Server 2012, Mitsui is able to implement a robust disaster-recovery solution at a reasonable cost. It does not need to maintain a completely redundant production infrastructure to keep MIRAI and other applications operational at all times. Rather, by using AlwaysOn availability groups, the company can have production servers doing double duty as backup servers.

"Everyone is calling for optimizing IT investments and limiting costs, so it’s not permissible to throw money and people at functions that are only used during disasters,” Mr. Nakahara says. “We give SQL Server 2012 high praise for increasing the utilization of our IT assets while

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“We give SQL Server 2012 high praise for increasing the utilization of our IT assets while strengthening our disaster-recovery preparedness.”

Mr. Masahiro Nakahara, Department Manager, Information Communications

Infrastructure Department, IT Promotions Division, Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

strengthening our disaster-recovery preparedness.”

Greater Business AgilityBy increasing the speed of data queries using xVelocity, Mitsui expects to increase the overall pace of decision making and business. "We feel that our role as a systems division is to test various products and technologies from the perspective of how they will benefit our business users and help them be more successful,” Mr. Nakahara says. “It is my expectation that the innovations we’ve introduced with SQL Server 2012 will lead to an improvement in agility for the entire company."

Microsoft Server Product PortfolioFor more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:www.microsoft.com/servers

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Mitsui Knowledge Industry Company products and services, visit the website at: www.mki.co.jp

For more information about Mitsui & Co., Ltd., products and services, visit the website at: www.mitsui.com/jp

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published March 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2008 R2− Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Technologies− Hyper-V

Partners Mitsui Knowledge Industry Company